5 million iPhones bought by China Unicom – sales to debut in September

According to International Business Times, the carrier has bought 5 million “WCDMA standard iPhones” from Apple, paying about 10 billion yuan (1.463 billion US dollars) for them – 2,000 yuan ($292) per unit.

A final agreement with Apple hasn’t been reached yet, but China Unicom plans to sell the 8GB iPhone for 2,400 yuan ($351), and the 16GB iPhone for around 4,800 yuan ($702). So it looks like Chinese customers won’t be getting the iPhone 3GS, but the older iPhone 3G – since an iPhone 3GS 8GB was not announced (although there are rumors about it).

Reportedly, the iPhones will be sold via Carrefour, as well as through various large retail outlets owned by China Unicom. As already mentioned, the first batch of Apple’s smartphones should reach China in September.